Comet 17P/Holmes expanding (Dec 05, 2007)

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About this Image

A month later the unique comet 17P/Holmes still is expanding after it's extreme and unexpected outburst in late October.
The comet now is the biggest object in the solar system at a distance of now approx. 390 million km from our sun at a relative size of 60 arc min. Currently it can be found approx 6 degree west of Alpha-Perseus.

Through the comet's greatly expanded coma a lot of faint stars and some background galaxies to the right side are visible.
The image scale is the same as for the one in November. North is up.

 


Technical Details

Optics

16" cassegrain in corrected primary focus at f/3

Mount MK-100 GEM
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -30C, internal filter wheel, for 16" cassegrain
Filters Astronomik LRGB
Date Dec 05, 2007 20 h UT.
Location Wildon/Austria
Sky Conditions mag 5.5 sky, good transparency, temperature 5 C
Exposure R:G:B = 1000:800:1000 sec (200 sec sub-exposures);
Processing Image aquisition and calibration in Maxim DL 4.65;
further processing in Photoshop;